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Red and silver competed for dominance as he took her beaten form in, silver overcame it all and he phased to her.

She wrapped her arms around his torso and sobbed so hard into his chest that he shook with its force.

He gently put a finger underneath her chin to lift it up and he looked her eye wound over. “This is damage from demon poison. We have to cut your eye out now before it spreads.”

Rowan stiffened. “The whole thing?”

He nodded, losing a bit of color as he did.

“Well,” She winced as a laugh tried to bubble up, “At least I took his arm.”

Exasperation took over Alessandro’s face. “I wonder why I even bother to worry about you, Rowan Dahl.”

Rowan leaned against his chest, the assured safety in his presence allowing her to turn into a pile of jelly. “I need people to worry.” She sighed, “I’m quite reckless.”

Not quite unconscious, but very near it Rowan heard his command for his dragons to take the severed limb and put it on ice. And then she felt when Alessandro phased them out of the wooded area into an air-conditioned room that smelled heavily sanitized.

She opened her eye and noted that they were in a medical wing, but it wasn’t like the Eastern Elven Kingdom’s infirmary where there were separate rooms. This was one large open area with navy blue walls and gold trim, housing several huge gurneys.

Heavy velvet curtains on tracks were the only offering of privacy.

“My King.” Aqua appeared only a moment after Alessandro gently placed her on the edge of one of those gurneys.

Rowan wished she could’ve stayed awake even a moment longer, but within the safety of the Dragon King’s warm and stalwart arms, she succumbed to the pain, hunger and darkness.

Chapter 24

Alessandro couldn’t remember the last time Draconis had been in such a buzz. The presence of the elven royal family was the first of its kind.

Sure, the dragons entertained foreign entities, but none of them had been as free roaming, curious or as light bringing as Rowan’s family.

Over the past week they had taken turns staying the night, dropping by with baskets full of elven artisanal snacks, fabrics, and fashion pieces the dragons adored.

Rowan was still unconscious, but that didn’t surprise him.

Demon poison was lethal. In all reality, she should’ve died minutes after the stabbing.

The adrenaline would’ve delivered the poison anywhere her blood could reach, but the elf had a trace of divinity in her system that neutralized the poison.

It also helped that the blade had been subpar, only containing enough poison to take her right eye. Her left hand, which Aqua found injured on her initial check up, was poison free.

He had been ready to open a vein for the woman, pour his celestial magic in, to cut off the effects. But, once again, she didn’t need him.

Alessandro barely had time to step into the medical wing, much less address where the hell she had gotten divinity from, as he dealt with the fallout of the Coven.

The shifter attacks had continued while Rowan had gone missing from the public eye. It saturated the media with hysterical anchors, putting out service announcements on how best to protect yourself from shifters who were all slowly losing their minds.

Antoni Barros’ plans had come crashing down from his tussle with the elven woman.

She had caused him enough damage to break his control over the illusion created for the Coven.

Once the Dahls realized Hye had come to his senses, they’d coordinated with the dragons, Cherry and Dae to get Darling jewelry pieces in as many witch hands as possible.

Along with this responsibility, Cherry Young was fighting a deadlocked political battle against Eve Tanoch and Dorin Indigo, now two emergency elected representatives of the Coven until the dust settled on the shifter attacks.

Cherry desired to expose the truth to ease the declining relationship between the public and shifters, but the other two had voted against such action afraid of the loss of trust the move would bring to the Coven in its entirety rather than focus on the still missing Antoni Barros.

In response, the shifters were working overtime on compiling evidence Barros had left behind in the house he’d held Cherry and Rowan in, to build their request for Judgement whenever the witch came out of hiding.

Back in Draconis, the Eastern Elven Kingdom’s doctor, Miasma, had been working alongside Aqua, who had never met her match in the world of healing.

Their teamwork was responsible not only for getting Cherry back on her feet so quickly but also for realizing that there was a much larger issue for Rowan than just the demon poisoning.

Her years of misusing her magic had caused damage to all of her chakra paths.

When she awoke, they would have to assess how far the damage had actually gotten.

In the meantime, they’d had to bring Chloe Darling in to supply her with customized suppression jewelry to keep her power regulated as she slept.

They’d lost power to the medical wing twice before they realized the problem was coming from its foreign guest.

‘I’m quite reckless’ kept rolling through his mind every time he thought of her.

The sight of her covered in blood, at death’s doorstep, haunted him anytime he was too far to feel her presence.

When he’d toured the basement room with the two nulling cages, her escape method became clear and he couldn’t help but admire the ingenuity in the woman.

How could someone so brilliant think they were reckless?

Now, an additional reason to refuse his dragon had cropped to the surface.

The Draconian Thunder would undoubtedly benefit from her protection and influence, but the world wouldn’t.

She had so much to offer, the anonymity her life would require should she become the Dragon Queen would stifle her opportunities.

Yet, he wanted her every second of every damn day, and it was slowly driving him mad. A madness that had set plans in motion to take care of that issue.

More often than not, he would stand outside the doors of her private suite listening to her friends and family as they visited or getting quick updates on her status before moving on.

The only time he truly avoided the place was when Japhet visited. At least twice a day, the giant witch would show up, and each time he would ask to see Alessandro.

Each time, Alessandro would make up a believable excuse and the witch would retreat, but he knew eventually he’d have to face him.

As it was his turn to ask for a favor, Alessandro had a suspicion it would have something to do with leaving Rowan Dahl alone, and Alessandro knew he could make no such vow.

For the first time since she’d succumbed to her healing rest, Alessandro found her alone.

She was still unconscious, and he took the few precious moments of solitude to drink in her calm visage. Her bruises had faded, her cuts sealed. He took hold of her hand and dropped a brief kiss on her forehead.

He could allow the tenderness his dragon demanded he show his chosen with no eyes around to judge. He longed to curl his body around hers, which radiated such a seductive heat he might have given in if the door didn’t slide open to reveal the sight of her mother.

“The silver in your eyes doesn’t mean what I think it does, does it?” The woman asked, and he felt the tingling of pity edging her voice.

He didn’t answer, but he also didn’t let go of her daughter’s hand.

Annabelle frowned and took a seat on the chair pushed up next to the bed.

“She will make a terrible queen.” The elven-succubus’ laugh was cruel. “She’s too much like me to be any good at it.”

He cocked his head. “You believe you are a terrible queen?”

“Oh, I know I am. The only duties I have kept are for showmanship. I am the wife of the king, mother to the heiress apparent, but I don’t read to the children, arrange dinners and galas.

I don’t even really care for the people if I’m honest, and I know they don’t really care for me.

But we both love my husband, so we put up with each other.

Do you think that is how a true queen should be? ”

Alessandro didn’t answer.

“I hoped if there was someone out there for her, they would be as free and wild as she is. But you, you’re not what I hoped for her at all.” Annabelle sighed, “You’re rigid and cold. You might put out the radiant light that is my daughter.”

“Ma, that’s enough.” The voice came from the doorway. Alessandro looked up and saw Axel entering with a pitying frown that suggested she didn’t actually see the situation differently.

Annabelle scoffed, “I am only telling him what you all will be too proper to say. Rowan will suffocate in this life. What’s worse is that, unlike our shorter lifespan, Rowan will have to endure it for centuries if she mates with a long-lived creature like a dragon. ”

“That’s her choice. You can’t take it away from her!” Axel snapped.

Alessandro was stunned by the depth of emotion that came from the sister. Something else was happening there. He needed more information to know the full scope, but this wasn’t simply an issue over Rowan.

Annabelle recoiled.

“Stop fighting.” Rowan’s voice was a rasp.

Alessandro turned to look at the woman as she squeezed his hand. He held a breath as her lashes parted to reveal a brilliant blue eye. She raised the hand she hadn’t been holding to touch the suede eyepatch that covered the hole where her left eye used to be. “You really took out the whole thing.”

“Are you in pain?” He asked, remembering to breathe.

“Does a headache from my screeching family count?” She asked with a smirk curling her lips.

“Malcriada.” Annabelle shot up from the seat and glared down at her, “How long do you plan on lounging and being useless overall? I’m a very busy woman, you know.”

It was such a different reaction than Alessandro had expected from the woman who he had found, more often than not, sniffling at her daughter’s side.